Catheters for draining the bladder are increasingly used for intermittent as well as indwelling or permanent catheterisation. Typically, catheters are used by patients suffering from urinary incontinence or by disabled individuals like para- or tetraplegics who may have no control permitting voluntary urination and for whom catheterisation may be the way of urinating.
Typically, catheters are provided to the user enveloped in a completely sealed and sterilised package. During use and prior to insertion, the catheter is removed completely from the package whereby a potential contamination of the catheter may occur, e.g. if the user unintentionally touches the catheter or if the catheter touches surrounding obstacles such as a toilet seat or a wash basin etc. Catheter packages and assemblies of catheters and packages exist, wherein both a proximal end and a distal end of the package may be opened thus allowing for draining the urine through a catheter which is still at least partly enveloped in the package. Thereby, the user may urinate without completely exposing the catheter and the risk of contamination is therefore reduced. There is however still a severe risk that the handling of the catheter may cause an unwanted contamination, not least if the user touches the catheter during the insertion thereof.
WO 00/30575 discloses a urinary catheter assembly comprising a case and an applicator for non-contaminating insertion of a urinary catheter into a urinary canal. The disclosed applicator comprises a compartment with a soft resilient wall adapted to be squeezed into engagement with the catheter in question. The applicator thus reduces the risk of contaminating the catheter by allowing the user to insert the catheter without touching it by hand. The use of the disclosed compartment requires not only dexterity but also certain strength for the user to squeeze the compartment sufficiently tight against the outer surface of the catheter to allow manipulation thereof. The manipulation of the catheter through the compartment wall is even more difficult when the catheter is coated with a friction reducing substance.